Don’t wash out your corned beef by boiling it. Enjoy a flavorful and tender St. Patrick’s Day dinner with this Baked Corned Beef with Mustard Crust.
I never really understood St. Patrick’s Day. I am not Irish. I have zero, zippo Irish blood running in my veins. I’ve got Lithuanian and Iranian blood, you see. And when I moved the U.S. in the 70’s, I had no understanding about things like Leprechauns or the Easter Bunny.
I got pinched for not wearing green and couldn’t understand why my friends believed in a giant bunny that gives away candy. Fast forward 30 years later, and I’m a mom of three and having fun with the many “holidays” celebrated in the U.S. Which brings me to this lovely wonderful recipe!
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Recipe highlights
- Economical: Briskets are typically a cheaper cut of meat, especially when compared to other cuts of beef. And cheaper meats should be cooked low and slow to turn into tender deliciousness. And the other ingredients you need are probably already in your pantry!
- Simple: No fancy equipment or slow cooker is needed to make this dish. It is super simple to prep and bake this recipe.
- Texture: When cooked low and slow for several hours, the brisket comes out perfectly tender! And it makes a wonderful meal, slice for sandwiches, use leftovers for eggs and hash!
- Flavor: By slow roasting your corned beef, instead of boiling it, the flavor is enhanced and you end with a truly delicious meat and not bland piece of rubber.
When I first tried making corned beef, I followed the directions on the package and slowly boiled it. Boiling the corned beef is how the Irish Americans first prepared this dish, too. It truly tasted awful and we threw it all away.
I was never a fan of boiled meat, whether in a pot over the stove or in a slow-cooker. I figured there had to be another way to prepare corned beef without boiling it.
Then I learned that I could bake my corned beef and my curiosity was piqued. It made so much more sense to oven bake a brisket than to boil it. So I tried it myself. It is now favorite way to enjoy corned beef.
This is the only way to cook a corned beef. But you forgot the best way to use any leftovers: Reuben sandwiches!
– Alison
Ingredients you need
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- Corned beef brisket: I prefer the brisket cut as it is much more tender and juicy than the other cuts. But you can use this method with other cuts of corned beef.
- Mustards: I use two mustard combinations, honey mustard and whole grain dijon mustard. You can use any kind of mustard you like. Just choose something that has depth of flavor beyond the standard yellow mustard.
- Brown sugar: You can use light or dark brown sugar. If you are eating low carb, you can also use alternative brown sweetener.
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Step-by-step directions
- Prep the roast. Drain liquid from corned beef package and pat dry with paper towels. This next step is optional. If salt is an issue for you, place your corned beef in a pot fat side up and cover with water. Once the water comes to a boil, remove from heat, discard the water and continue with the rest of the recipe. I personally do not boil my corned beef before roasting and just give it a quick rinse and pat dry.
- Place on foil. Lay corned beef, fat side up, on a large piece of heavy duty, wide, aluminum foil. Evenly sprinkle peppercorns from package over corned beef (optional).
- Add the mustard. Whisk together mustards and spread half of it over the top of the corned beef. Reserve remaining mustard. Sprinkle brown sugar over the mustard covered corned beef.
- Bake. Wrap the corned beef with foil so that space is left on top between the corned beef and the foil. Place foil-wrapped corned beef in a shallow roasting pan and bake at 350ºF for 2-3 hours, or until fork tender. You will bake approximately 1 hour per pound of corned beef.
- Optional brown. If you want it lightly browned, open the foil wrapping and broil for 2-3 minutes.
- Rest. Let corned beef rest for 5 to 10 minutes, then place on cutting board and cut at a diagonal, across the grain of the meat, into ½-inch thick slices. Serve with reserved mustard on the side.
Recipe tips and FAQs
Honestly, my whole family loves this dish so much and usually we eat it up with zero leftovers. This is now my go-to recipe whenever we have a corned beef hankering!
But just in case you do have leftovers, you can always make up some delicious sandwiches. But my family absolutely loves my corned beef mac and cheese. You can also set it up as appetizer/snack like this corned beef bruschetta. My absolutely favorite way to enjoy leftover corned beef is in my corned beef and cabbage quinoa salad.
Special thanks to Simply Recipes for the inspiration. I have altered it to my family’s liking and sharing my version below. I omitted cloves from the original recipe because no one in my family likes cloves. I also modified the mustard topping to my personal taste.
Storing/Freezing Instructions
TO STORE: Store any leftover corned beef in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 4 days.
TO FREEZE: You can also freeze leftovers. Transfer to a resealable bag or freezer safe container and freeze for up to 4 months.
TO REHEAT: I am not a fan of reheating meats in the microwave. Instead I like to pan fry slices. If you have large chunks of roast, you can reheat in the oven. Just wrap in foil and place in a 300ºF oven until warmed through.
The beef gets cured using large grains of rock salt, aka “corns” of salt. The beef sits in this brine giving corned beef its distinctive pink color. This curing process helps tenderize a normally tough cut of meat.
If salt is an issue for you, place your brisket in a pot fat side up and cover with water. Once the water comes to a boil, remove from heat, discard the water then bake as recipe directs. But I personally do not boil the meat before roasting it, I just rinse it. Par boiling is not necessary, but is dependent on your own personal taste.
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Baked Corned Beef with Mustard Crust
Ingredients
- 3 lb corned beef brisket
- ¼ cup honey mustard
- ¼ cup whole grain dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoon light brown sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Drain liquid from corned beef package and pat dry with paper towels.
- (Optional) If salt is an issue for you, place your corned beef in a pot fat side up and cover with water. Once the water comes to a boil, remove from heat, discard the water and continue with the rest of the recipe.
- Lay corned beef, fat side up, on a large piece of heavy duty, wide, aluminum foil.
- Evenly sprinkle peppercorns from package over corned beef (optional).
- In a small bowl, whisk together mustards.
- Spread half of the mustard mixture over the top of the corned beef. Reserve remaining mustard.
- Sprinkle over the mustard covered corned beef with brown sugar.
- Wrap the corned beef with foil so that space is left on top between the corned beef and the foil
- Place foil-wrapped corned beef in a shallow roasting pan and bake for 2-3 hours, or until internal temperature reaches 190º F (90º C). You will bake approximately 1 hour per pound of corned beef.
- Open the foil wrapping and broil for 2-3 minutes, until the top is bubbly and lightly browned.
- Let corned beef rest for 5 to 10 minutes, then place on cutting board and cut at a diagonal, across the grain of the meat, into ½-inch thick slices.
- Serve with reserved mustard on the side.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer
Nutritional information is an estimate provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the actual nutritional information with the products and brands you are using with your preferred nutritional calculator.
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Written by Laura Bashar
Hi, I’m Laura, a certified professional cook and cookbook author living in San Diego. I have been sharing my family’s favorite recipes inspired from all over the world since 2008. Let’s cook up something fun!
In the ingredients for the corned beef, what is honey mustard?
Hi Marylynn,
Honey Mustard is a type of semi-sweet mustard you can buy. If you do not want to use this, you can use dijon mustard. I like using two different types of mustard for this recipe.
Laura
i purchased a corned beef round – liked your recipe but noticed your comment that you did not like a round roast. Will my roast still come out tender using your recipe?
I have cooked both and both have turned out tender when prepared in the oven, but my family preferred the flavor and texture of the brisket cut. The round cut has less fat than the brisket cut. From what I understand, the round cut is easier to slice and is used for pastrami. Again, both will turn out tender when slow roasted.
Looks yum, Corned beef is so much favorite anytime!
That was the cutest story, that poor little guy! I don’t blame him, I wouldn’t want to clean up after Leprechauns either – smart kit! 😀
Your recipe sounds amazing – great flavors! Baking is smart too, I mean I wouldn’t boil my brisket and isn’t corned beef made from brisket? Love this!
This is my favorite way to make corned beef. My Mother-in-law doesn’t care for corned beef but really enjoyed this and now is a fan (only if made this way). I’ve had your leftover corned beef with quinoa and think it’s awesome. I’ll have to remember to get a bigger slab of beef so I’ll have leftovers.
Happy Leprechauns’ Day!
Laura,
Thanks for tip. I cut my 5 pound corned beef brisket in half. Because it was considerably thicker than a more typical 3 pounder, I increased the time to 3 hours. Turned out great.
Laura,
I made your oven baked corned beef for St Patrick’s Day last year. It was the best I’ve ever had. I’ll never go back to the boiled method.
Need your help!
Last year I followed the recipe exactly…3 pounds, 350 degrees, 2hours……PERFECT.
This year I got a 5 pound piece of meat. At 350 degrees, how long should I cook it?
Any ideas?
Kurt in St Louis
Hi Kurt! So glad you love this recipe. I seriously don’t get why anyone would boil their corned beef. So you have two options. If you are cooking the the 5-pounds as one big roast, I’m thinking 40 minutes per pound, so around 3.5 hours. If you read the comments on this recipe, someone baked their 4-pounder at 325ºf instead of 350ºF and baked it for 6 hours. But having never baked a corned beef that big, another faster option is to cut the brisket into two equal halves, prepare and wrap each in their foil pouches and bake for… Read more »
This recipe was a huge success! My kids had a second helping. Thanks for the inspiration and wonderful pairing with some “green” wine and beer.
AWESOME.
changed cooking to 325 for six hours. (on a 4 pounder)
What a cute story! Pinning the recipe, looks delicious.
I always figured the boiling tradition just came from lack of oven space because baking makes so much more sense. This looks delicious. Thanks.
We always bake ours for the last 20 minutes or so, but I’ve never done it the whole time baked. I’d love to try it!
It has so much more flavor when baked. And then everyone gets upset if there are no leftovers!
I’ve actually never tried corned beef.. and had no idea that it had Irish origins either. Looks cooked to perfect though!
Corned beef, grainy mustard and sauerkraut… oh, so good together! I hope you get to try it.
I don’t know how old this post is, but felt compelled to comment. We always kept a can of monster away spray around when the kids were little to help banish any monsters (or Leprechauns). We would spray a bit of spray around the room or wherever the kids were most nervous and sing a little made up ditty about getting rid of monsters. That really seemed to do the trick for our kids. We generally used some sort of air freshener for the spray.
Thanks for sharing the cute story.
ha! ha! I LOVE this idea! This happened 4 years ago, and I swear my son still doesn’t like St. Patrick’s Day. And he’s almost 10 now! He was shaken up for a couple months afterwards, had a scare again in kindergarten, but seemed unaffected by the time first grade came along. This reminds me when my oldest boy was barely 2 years old and he freaked out on Christmas Eve because some strange fat man in a red suit was going to be in his house while he slept! Thanks for sharing!
I'm looking forward to this corned beef recipe. I like changing things up a little every year. Although green beer is green beer. Not sure how I'm going to change that…green wine maybe? Will let you know.
I have some green wine from a Missouri winery! Trying it out with this recipe tonight
Cheers! I hope you enjoyed the corned beef!
Laura
I'm looking forward to this recipe with the corned beef. Each year I want something a little different to challenge my family's taste buds and any attitudes towards a specific ingredient. Ha! Looking forward to their therapy sessions regarding food issues when they grow up.
I'm glad everyone liked it! It must have been one big roast!
I used your recipe for corned beef tonight. I had to cook mine for 3 hours to get it tender. It was really good. Everyone loved it. The crispy skin was delish from broiling it. Thanks for the recipe!
I am so glad I found this. I have to make it this week and I haven't liked it before…
What a cute post and story 🙂 Leprecauns are scary almost as scary and creepy as clowns. (I'm shuddering )I've never made Corned beef but I love the taste.T hanks for the recipe I like this better than boiling, hate the tasted of boiled meat.
Me too, boiling takes the flavor out of meat